10/03/2026
Jet's thinking style is definitely on the optimistic side. See a bucket, check it out.
How we explain the events in our lives makes a difference to our sense of well-being, and can be crucial in managing difficult times. I love the notion of 'Explanatory Style' to describe the ways we think about events. We may not be able to change the events themselves, but the way we think about them matters. Martin Seligman’s work on ‘Explanatory Style’ and ‘Learned Helplessness’ is important for both horses and humans.
We know that ‘shut-down’ horses have learned to tolerate inconsistent or harsh handling, especially when they are punished for showing resistance. When signs of stress are ignored, they either fight or go inside themselves and give up. Learned helplessness happens in humans too, especially to those whose pessimistic thinking style tells them that any success is just a one-off, that failure is always going to be more likely than success, and that they will fail in almost everything they do.
On the other hand, optimistic thinking leads resilient and healthy people to own their successes, to see occasional failures as one-offs and to be creative and optimistic about all their endeavours, even in the face of setbacks.
At Warwick Schiller’s Masterclass last week, he said, “Beware of dishonest absolutes.” For example, ‘I can never catch my horse’ or ‘My horse always does X’. ‘Never’ and ‘always’ are signs of a pessimistic thinking style, and horses are sensitive to the tensions that our thoughts create in us. Understanding explanatory styles means we have the opportunity to be both realistic and resilient. And our horses will appreciate it.
In this case, Jet had to be realistic - and wait until tea-time.
